What I've Learned: Representative Judy Biggert (R, Ill.)

The thirteenth in a daily series — Esquire's historic collection of wisdom from members of the 111th Congress, this one up for re-election...

When I got to Northwestern, we had a bumper crop of women. There were actually eight women in my class — unheard of.

They didn't know what to do with women in law school. Many of the firms wouldn't even interview us until a lot of the men started saying, "We're not going to interview unless you allow the women." Now, I think, 51 or 52 percent of law school classes are made up of women.

I was very surprised that John McCain chose Sarah Palin. You know, I'm more of a moderate Republican, and I didn't see it coming at all. I thought there were a lot of experienced women who might be asked. I remember where I was. Home in the district talking to a group of women. My aid walked up right after McCain's announcement and gave me an envelope with a name on it. I looked at it and blurted out, "It's Sarah Palin." The women all started clapping and cheering. My face dropped. I tried to pretend that, Oh, this is a great thing. But I didn't know much about her and it seemed like we needed somebody that was much more experienced and could help on the business side.

We do have a lot of women running for office now. Problem is there are a lot of women running against women.

As a moderate, you work across the aisle and some of the more conservative members don't understand that.

I was very honored to be chosen as one of the most bipartisan members of Congress. 'Course, I have to say that Barney Frank was also chosen as one of the most bipartisan, too. He was also chosen as one of the most partisan. I guess he has a split personality.

Most Americans are centrist, and they don't like to see us polarized. To me, politics has always been the art of compromise. One side can't run it all. I've just done fourteen town hall meetings. People just want to see us solve the problems.

I didn't really go into politics until my last four children went off to college. I wasn't going to leave any teenagers home alone. Then I went to a Chicago Bears football game party and was asked to run for the Illinois general assembly. They said, "You've got six weeks to do it, and we'll help you." That's how I got into it.

I met Obama in Chicago. I was in the Illinois House and he came into the Illinois Senate. He wasn't the messiah then.

One time, my husband caught Obama kissing me on the cheek as he was coming down the aisle to speak at the State of the Union. He said, "What are you doing?" I said, "Well, he kisses everybody."

I'd like to ask Lincoln if he wrote as well as he did when he was young.

There is this idea to build a sub-station on the moon with equipment that can send solar energy back to the earth. The first thing I thought was, "What if I'm walking by the beam that hits the earth? Am I going to be eradicated?" They said, "No, it'll be kind of like a microwave." At first you think it's only science fiction. But it's not. And that's why we have to make the investment. This is what we've got to do, think outside of the box.

The first time I was running for Congress I went to a golf outing and a man screamed, "We're so glad you're running for Congress, but they reported your age fifteen years older than you are!" I said, "No, they didn't." And he said, "Yes, they did." I didn't argue with him.

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